Sparkling Worcester

There will be pop for First Night 2013, and sparkle and fizz. Polar Beverages is pouring a generous contribution into the festivities, to make midnight fireworks happen.

The Worcester-based soft drink bottler’s $10,000 pledge will help restore a First Night essential that has sputtered in recent years.

The happy-new-year pyrotechnics will be shot from Bell Hill, sending First Night crowds home dazzled and satisfied.

The nonprofit First Night Worcester is under new leadership, with Howard McGinn as executive director. In securing Polar’s help, he has tapped into an old partnership.

Limited finances and vagaries of attendance and weather make the annual undertaking dependent on good decisions that provide the right combination of tradition and luck. The return of midnight pyrotechnics is a very good decision. The promise of fireworks is likely to draw people to First Night, where they will discover the slate of acts and surprises that bring color to the streets in the hours leading up to the splashes in the sky.

Meanwhile, a way local residents who are so inclined can help is to buy the $75 VIP tickets to tonight’s “This Is the ’60s” show at the Hanover Theatre. The VIP tickets include a pre-show reception to benefit First Night.

And all can help — a lot — by penciling in First Night on the calendar for Dec. 31, noting they’ll be out past midnight.